| Subject: 26 Years Ago: Suddenly, Everybody Knows Their Names |
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wcpurple
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Date Posted: Thursday, April 02, 08:20:30am
Author Host/IP: customer.nwyynyx1.isp.starlink.com/129.222.241.43
I forgot to post this story on 3/30 which would be 26 years
link: https://www.ushr.com/news/20000301
Fans, scouts, and reporters who attended the western regionals in Minneapolis last weekend are still talking about Niagara, this year's feel-good story in college hockey.
And no wonder. A school that never even had a hockey program at any level as recently as four years ago makes it into the NCAAs, knocks off national powerhouse UNH and then, playing with a trip to Providence on the line, stays with North Dakota, one of the bye teams, for two periods before running out of gas in the third.
"I've never in my life experienced anything more fulfilling than this. It's been a great ride," head coach Blaise MacDonald said this week.
MacDonald, who had 11 scholarships to work with when, shortly after taking the Niagara job in early 1996, he took on a slew of freshmen. Thirteen of them, none of whom were recruited by any other DI schools, became the core of this year's squad. "Four years ago," MacDonald said, "no one knew who they were. Now they have NHL scouts talking about them."
Chief among them is senior goaltender Greg Gardner, who kicked out 73 shots against UNH and North Dakota last weekend. Gardner, a 24-year-old free agent, is getting interest and could be signing shortly with Detroit, St. Louis, Tampa Bay, or the Minnesota Wild.
Gardner, who was MacDonald's first recruit, was playing for the Thornhill Islanders, coached by Brad Selwood, and was getting little in the way of attention when MacDonald first saw him in. His numbers were good, though, and MacDonald liked his Billy Smith/Ron Hextall brand of fierce competitiveness. That fall, Gardner arrived on campus, where assistant coach Dave Burkholder, a goaltender (and teammate of MacDonald's) on RIT's 1983 National Championship squad, would spend countless hours studying video with Gardner. It paid off. Gardner's numbers have steadily improved each year, from a 3.45 gaa and a .875 save percentage as a freshman to a 1.43 gaa and a .936 save percentage this season.
The defining weekend for the Niagara hockey program came 16 months ago, in October 1998, when the Purple Eagles, in their first year as a DI independent, opened the season at Michigan's Yost Arena, losing to the defending-champion Wolverines 6-5 in OT on Friday, and then turning around and knocking off their hosts, 2-1 the following night.
Niagara finished 18-12-3, also knocking off schools like Ohio State, St. Lawrence, and Colgate. This season with a 29-7-4 regular season record and wins over BU, Rensselaer, and Colorado College, Niagara was awarded an NCAA invite as the west's sixth seed.
Right after returning from the regionals last weekend, leading scorer Mikko Sivonen, a Finn who played in Maine with the Great Northern Snow Devils (EJHL) for a year before being recruited by MacDonald, reported to Johnstown of the East Coast League. Another senior, Nate Handrahan, a local player who arrived at Niagara via the Niagara Falls Canucks Jr. B, is in Roanoke.
MacDonald has gotten calls about senior forwards Mike Isherwood, Peter DeSantis, and Kyle Martin; and senior D Chris McKenzie.
What about the coach, anyway? His stock is sky high now. Proof? On Tuesday, Niagara AD Mike Hermann received a call from UMass seeking permission to talk to MacDonald. MacDonald, who has a six-year contract with an out clause, is a native of Boston, as is his wife. From 1990-95, when Boston University reached the Final Four four times in five years, MacDonald was the chief recruiter for coach Jack Parker. Before that, he was an assistant at Lowell, Princeton, and Dartmouth.
As for what might happen tomorrow, MacDonald says, "If people have enough respect to consider you for a job, you owe it to them to look at it."
It sounds to us as if MacDonald, who put Niagara hockey on the map, might be ready for another challenge -- one closer to home, perhaps.
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